Apple has acquired Intrinsity, a chipmaker that created the key speed technology in the iPad’s A4 processor. With Intrinsity’s technology, the Apple iPad runs about a third faster than most mobile processors. Buying Intrinsity shaves Apple’s cost and lets it shape the A4 chip in the iPad. An analyst said Intrinsity’s tech is useful “for a while.”

With the battle for mobile devices heating up, Apple has taken a step to solidify its position by buying a small, Texas-based chipmaker that created key technology in the iPad’s processor. The deal to buy Intrinsity was confirmed by Apple on Tuesday.

The purchase price for the Austin-based company is reported to be $121 million. Since the iPad was unveiled in January, Apple has said the device’s A4 chip is the key to its speed and battery life, and industry observers have speculated that the A4 was built on Intrinsity’s technology.

Faster Mobile Chips

Intrinsity’s technology allows the iPad’s mobile chip to be run at one gigahertz, about a third faster than most processors for mobile devices. A division of Samsung actually built the A4 for Apple.

Apple’s purchase is being compared to a similar move by a key competitor, Google. Earlier this month, Google bought a startup chipmaker named Agnilux, which had been formed by former Apple and PA Semi employees.

Interestingly, PA Semi was purchased by Apple in 2008 for $280 million, and its technology has also reportedly been used in the iPad’s A4. But some industry watchers have speculated that Google’s interest in Agnilux is more about creating energy-efficient servers for cloud Relevant Products/Services computing Relevant Products/Services than about mobile-device chips.

In its promotional material, Intrinsity said it provides “the tools, technologies, and expertise” so its customers can produce “the fastest digital logic.” It added that the key to doing that is its proprietary Fast14 technology, which can provide circuit speeds “up to and beyond three GHz,” as well as the ability to trade off speed, power and chip area in order to achieve a customer Relevant Products/Services’s targets.

The company said its FastCores, using the Fast14 technology, can typically run twice or more as fast as ordinary static-logic versions, with “little to no more silicon area or power per MHz” if Intrinsity’s high-speed memories are used. It also noted that FastCores “consume “significantly less power” than comparable static versions, and they are built using the same manufacturing processes as slower versions.

A ‘Relatively Minor’ Advantage

Martin Reynolds, an analyst with industry research firm Gartner, said “what Intrinsity has is a portfolio of technology” for faster ARM chips that require less power.

Apple has several strategic reasons to buy Intrinsity, he said, such as a cost reduction in utilizing the technology for its chips, as well as the ability to adapt it in developing new products.

He noted that it “also takes this technology off the table for Apple’s competitors,” but this is a “relatively minor” advantage. Intrinsity’s technology, which enables faster circuits to be built with fewer transistors, is “useful only for a while,” Reynolds said.

Apple could move forward on the iPad and possibly other products without owning Intrinsity, he said, “but it certainly helps.”

Apple proclaims that the iPad is magical. Steve Jobs himself said that it would be one of the most important works of his life. But is there a story to the iPad that the public doesn’t know? We take you 38 years into the past, when the iPad was invented.

Did Steve Jobs Steal the iPad?

The industry tends to get too consumed by excitement for Apple’s latest products. So much, in fact, that we forget to ask questions we usually would like to ask. There is the general perception that Steve Jobs is one of the greatest inventors of our time. Be prepared for the wrath of Apple’s fan base if you criticize Apple and especially Jobs. Think about the iPhone and what it has done for the status of Jobs. Or the iPad, which Jobs reportedly described as the most important device he has ever launched. But is it possible that Steve Jobs is really the origin of all those captivating ideas?

Before you crucify me, yes, this article’s headline carries a bit of sensationalism, and depending on your perception of Apple, you have answered that question for yourself already. I don’t want to change what you already believe, but I would like to give you some food for thought. I will take you along a fascinating journey that took me back four decades in time to the origins of personal computing. There is a side of the iPad I am sure you don’t know.

A day or so before the iPad went on sale, I was researching material for my final iPad launch article over at ConceivablyTech.com and came across a slideshow that was mentioned by Business Insider that included some of the iPad’s predecessors. The first device was particularly interesting — it was one of those sketchy drawings we usually see in patent drawings. The similarity to the iPad and previous Webpads was amazing. What struck me was how the article noted that the device called Dynabook dates back to 1968.

Zoom
Like the author of the Business Insider article, I had never heard of the Dynabook. Google quickly revealed the source of the article, a 1972 research paper published by a Xerox PARC scientist. I have been an IT writer for the entire span of my 15-year career, so PARC was no secret to me and you perhaps know as well that this famed research center was the origin of many technologies we take for granted today, such as the laser printer, the computer mouse, and the Ethernet. It turned out the Dynabook is at least as significant as those technologies.

As you read the paper entitled “A Personal Computer for Children of All Ages,” you get the impression that the author had a clear vision of a device like the iPad. Remember, this was 38 years ago in a time when the phrase “personal computer” did not exist, when there was no Microsoft and computers were not popular enough to have convinced a publisher to design and create a magazine for it. I’ll spare you the details of the paper and you can read the text or download the PDF of the article to learn about a part of computer history you don’t hear about that often.

It so happens that the author of this paper is Alan Kay, one of the key people who have shaped the way we are using computers today. You may not have heard of Kay, as he is part of the research community and does not stand on stages like Steve Jobs or Bill Gates does. Kay is widely recognized and best known as the key scientist behind the graphical user interface and one of the inventors of object-oriented programming.

The Dynabook is still remembered as a vision of what computers could eventually become. Kay described a plasma screen with a contrast ratio approaching that of a book; a keyboard with no moving parts; a network connection with the ability to purchase, transfer, and download “instantiate” files; global information connectivity, such as libraries; media connectivity; and a target price of $500.

After reading the paper, it was natural to ask the question: Did Steve Jobs read this paper as well and did he just try to build the Dynabook? I was lucky enough to catch up with Alan Kay and ask him what he thought. Needless to say, I also tried to contact Apple’s PR department and Steve Jobs himself, but I did not get a reply.

After a week of exchanging delightful emails with Alan Kay, I have learned quite a bit about the origins of personal computing and the Dynabook, but I have to admit that answering the question whether the iPad was Jobs’ idea or not is nearly impossible.

Kay told me that back in 1972 he “wasn’t trying to predict the iPad” and that “the desiderata for the Dynabook should be judged on their own merits.” In fact, the Dynabook was not so much a prediction, but a vision for a personal computer and what it could be. That vision not only included hardware, but software as well that would allow anyone, especially children, to use the computer as a medium of expression, much like reading and writing are amplified by the printing press, as Kay describes it.

Kay believes that computers can be much more powerful than most people can imagine today. A significant component of the Dynabook’s usage model was that its users would be able to easily develop simple applications. For example, even children could use simple yet effective graphics-based script languages to understand and translate experiments as well as to modify and write their own scripts and eventually entire programs such as games.

There is a clear difference between the Dynabook concept and what the iPad is today. If you look at the iPad and the Dynabook, the usage models could not be any different. You could even claim that the iPad is geared for passive computing, while the Dynabook represented an idea of active computing. The last thing you would want to do on an iPad is write your own software. You have the App Store, so why would you program anything? However, there is a much deeper connection between Kay and Apple.

Kay agreed that Steve Jobs has known about the Dynabook idea and the interim-Dynabook (called the PARC Alto) for several decades. The result of the research and Kay’s colleagues at Apple were the Lisa and Macintosh. After becoming an Apple Fellow in 1984, Kay intended to build a Dynabook and actually came very close to completing it. “The Newton was one such project and it was a shame that the Apple marketing people messed up the design of it,” Kay said.

Over time, there were more Dynabook hints in the IT industry. For example, there was the Tablet PC, which was predicted to revolutionize the notebook market. However, Kay believes that “the design of this machine was ruined by Bill Gates, who insisted that Windows be the software on it.” The Tablet PC, by the way, was first designed by Chuck Thacker, who also designed the PARC Alto.

So, did the Dynabook influence Steve Jobs and the iPad? “Hard to imagine that it didn’t,” Kay said. “Of course, many things in the multi-touch UI, page turning animations, etc. were first done by the group of my friend Nicholas Negroponte at MIT,” Kay said. “The idea of touch screen interaction also goes back to this community, both at PARC and Negroponte’s research group at MIT that invented a multi-touch tablet in the 70s. One set of the machines we made, called ‘The NoteTaker,’ had a touch screen.”

So Kay and Jobs have a lasting relationship. There is a particularly interesting event between the two that relates to the iPhone and the iPad. “When Steve showed me the iPhone at its introduction a few years ago and asked me if ‘it was good enough to criticize,’ which is what I had said about the Mac in 1984, I held up my Moleskine notebook and said ‘make the screen at least 5″x8″ and you will rule the world,’ Kay said.

Did Jobs listen to Kay and simply build what he was advised to do? Possibly, but Kay really had another direction in mind. “Of course, I meant do more than just that, but it was clear the iPhone was going to be really appealing and very useful for most people,” Kay said. “When I saw the iPhone, I figured that they had already done a tablet version, which is easier to make work than the iPhone, so I was partially joking with Steve when I said 5″x8″.

I asked Kay, of course, whether he felt that Jobs had stolen the idea for the iPad. Kay quickly denied such a thought. He actually enjoys the success Jobs has with this product and said credit has been given to all parties involved.

“I have been given proper credit for my research and so have the other principal contributors to personal computing and Internetworking. We’ve all been given the major awards in our fields, honorary degrees from universities, elected as fellows to the major professional societies, etc,” Kay said. “I don’t know of any who wanted to be popular like a rock star or actor, so it all worked out well. And for quite a few of us, the big rewards now come from when our ideas are actually used rather than watered down.”

Kay sees a different kind of payoff in his work, rather than the monetary rewards we would normally expect. “The big rewards overall came from being able to do the work, that is to have visions and make them manifest. These are the rewards of art, and the simplest way to characterize the main figures we’ve being talking about is as artists in science and technology,” Kay said. “The second biggest reward was to get funded to be able to do this work. Good funders are rare, and the amazing ones give out the gold medals early, knowing that most of them will turn to lead. Public recognition 40 years later doesn’t compare to the real deals.”

Kay said that he still talks to Jobs today and they do appear to get along pretty well. “When I talk to Steve, I try to get him interested again in doing big things for education — this was a central theme for him in the early days — partly as a route to sell computers, but also as a civilization booster,” Kay said. “The ‘big things’ would include funding both internal and external research to make better learning environments for children, especially for hard-to-learn ideas like math and science.”

Kay did succeed with his idea eventually by pushing Etoys and Scratch and visual authoring systems on top of Squeak, which is an open source version of Smalltalk. Etoys and Scratch are used by children around the world to develop scripts and even applications. But some of us may wonder, if the iPad really isn’t the Dynabook and the Dynabook has not materialized yet, why Kay has not tried to build the complete device himself.

I learned that Kay has a true dedication and focus on what he does and isn’t likely to deviate from that. “Scientists are not the same as entrepreneurs. My main interests are finding and inventing. None of my friends who started companies, like Adobe, ever did ‘finding and inventing’ again,” Kay said. “The processes are very different and interfere considerably. What we did instead is to spend 25 years finding out what is needed in a constructive computer environment to really help 90% of children learn difficult-to-learn powerful ideas, and we were finally successful.”

Kay gives Apple a lot of credit for putting the finishing touches on an idea, but he criticizes what most believe is Apple’s strongest advantage today: the App Store.

“The app-centric way of looking at computing is not a good one in the end for the users. The apps can be individually very good and lots of them are on the iPad, but they needlessly stovepipe and isolate functionality that really should be integratible,” Kay said.

In his words, the app approach is somewhat disappointing and hides “what’s special” about computers. “This still essentially invisible for most people,” Kay said.

Kay’s solution? “An alternative way to do this would be to ‘sell objects, not apps’ and let the different objects all exist and be usable together in a kind of extended desktop publishing Hypercard document structure. This would allow very useful mashups to be done without any mashing,” Kay said. “For example, one of the drawing programs on the iPad is superb, but it doesn’t integrate with the word processor program other than extremely awkwardly. Object-level integration was in the original PARC systems and was more like what we intended for how integration would be done.”

Apple’s Hypercard may actually have been a critical component that prevented Apple from being even further ahead in the industry today than it is already. In the late 1980s, it was in place as a tool for end-users to easily create dynamic media. According to Kay, more than four million users had written scripted stacks after Hypercard had been out for about four years.

Sadly, Apple did not believe in Hypercard and scrapped it. Imagine Hypercard in existence today, further developed in line with Apple’s approach of clean design and ease of use? Kay even described a Hypercard-based Web browser that would allow users to create content directly within a Web browser, turning the Web browser into a versatile content creation and viewing tool, instead of the relatively simple viewing tool it is today.

But Kay does not believe that all hope is lost, as long as there remains a focus on the bigger picture of what computers can be and what makes them exciting. “There’s nothing wrong with the computer as a washing machine, automobile, or, perhaps, even a TV. But it would be a disaster to let TV drive out the printed book, and an even bigger one if the computer as a washing machine were to drive out the computer as the next truly important representation system since the book,” Kay said. “This is the main issue here. Another way to look at it is that if you did deeply understand what computing was all about, then you would not just want it to be used as a washing machine.”

Clearly, the idea of the Dynabook went far beyond what the iPad is today and it does not represent the vision of the Dynabook idea. In a way, Apple may have taken the best thoughts of the Dynabook and squeezed it into a marketable model and a scenario that fit into Apple’s business plan. No doubt, there has been a lot of brainwork to make the Dynabook work for Apple. However, the whole iPad release and Apple’s claim as an innovator just does not feel right.

The iPad seems to be a typical Apple product and not quite the innovation it seems to be at first sight. Instead, it is yet another example of how an idea that has been worked on for a while can be refined to perfection, at least as far as today’s market requirements are concerned. I do not believe that Apple deserves all the credit it receives today and it is a shame that the iPad’s origins are widely unknown.

I wonder: Is there an opportunity for Alan Kay’s Dynabook? An iPad with a Sqeak implementation that enables any user to write his or her own applications, rather than resorting to purchasing an app?

Feel free to join the discussion by leaving a comment below, but remember to keep things clean!

Norway Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg used his brand-new Apple iPad to govern from a New York airport. But Stoltenberg may not have been aware of the security risks of not using his hardened government phone. While Apple got some free iPad publicity, Stoltenberg’s endorsement also carried the risk of Apple being blamed for a security breach.

Norway’s prime minister is using the iPad to remotely govern his nation. According to a report by The Associated Press, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg started using his brand-new iPad while stuck at a New York airport on Thursday. His flight was canceled due to a volcanic ash cloud Relevant Products/Services in Iceland.

“When we were in the U.S., it was one of several tools that he used to keep in touch with the office back in Norway, to do his work,” Trude Maaseide, a spokesperson for the prime minister, told the AP. Stoltenberg was in town for President Barack Obama’s nuclear summit.

Running the iGovernment

Photos of Stoltenberg reading content on his iPad at Kennedy Airport during the delay are circulating the Internet. Many are discussing the prime minister’s move away from a laptop, netbook or even a smartphone to keep up with e-mail and other tasks while stranded. But some analysts are saying what appears to be a profitable publicity win for Apple could backfire on the iPad maker.

Although it’s not clear what types of tasks Stoltenberg was conducting on the iPad, it’s likely that he was sending e-mails to his staff back in Norway. The iPad would also allow him to watch television shows and movies, listen to music, or just pass the time while waiting for the next flight home.

“It’s interesting. Here you have a brand-new technology and a head of state actually using the technology to manage the country,” said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group. “It either says an awful lot about the device or an awful lot about what he needs to do to manage the country.”

A Risky Move

What does a government official’s use of the iPad say about the security Relevant Products/Services aspects of the device? As Enderle sees it, one of two things: It either gives a nod to the security of the iPad and the network Relevant Products/Services or makes a fairly severe comment, which he thinks is more likely, about the official’s knowledge of the device and the network. Since the iPad is a consumer device, he noted, it doesn’t offer anywhere near the heavy encryption that a government device does.

“Remember, even a Research In Motion BlackBerry, which is relatively secure in the smartphone space, wasn’t enough for Barack Obama. Stoltenberg had to get a specialized phone for government work, a very expensive hardened phone,” Enderle said. “So this may have more to do with the lack of knowledge of the risk that individual is taking than it does with the security of the device.”

Finally, there’s the question of more free publicity for the iPad. But analysts aren’t so sure Apple is doing cartwheels over this story because it carries a significant downside for the brand if anything goes wrong.

“If you are Apple, you don’t want people doing this because it’s so risky. If there is a known breach, it will do far more damage to Apple than this particular stunt will do good. This is one of those things I am not sure Apple is all that happy with,” Enderle said. “Stoltenberg is doing something that is incredibly risky. Like anything else, if it backfires on him it’s going to reflect poorly on Apple. All Apple can say is that they designed the device to do these things, but it’s not going to help Apple much.”

The Apple rumors have switched to a possible smaller version of the iPad, with a five- to seven-inch touchscreen. The reports from Apple suppliers suggest an “iPad Nano” with a focus on e-books and a price below $400. An analyst suggested Apple’s iPhone could get a screen up to 1.5 inches larger. A new Apple iPhone is expected this summer.

A cottage industry of rumors surrounded Apple’s iPad until it was unveiled in late January. And now, only a few days out from the device’s launch, a new report says the Cupertino, Calif.-based company is planning to release a mini-iPad.

DigiTimes, a publication that focuses on the electronics industries in China and Taiwan, is reporting that Apple is working on a smaller iPad that features a five- to seven-inch screen. The iPad currently has a 9.7-inch display.

‘iPad Nano’?

According to the publication, the device will retail for under $400 and is planned for release during the first quarter next year. The least expensive iPad, the 16GB Wi-Fi, lists for $499.

A device of this size might be geared more toward users wanting to read e-books and consume various types of media than toward the users who want to write and conduct some computing Relevant Products/Services activities. If an “iPad Nano” did emerge, it would likely be positioned directly against Amazon.com’s Kindle, the Sony Reader, and Barnes & Noble’s nook, among other e-readers.

The report is based on unnamed sources at components manufacturers, which, given the publication’s focus and Apple’s manufacturing structure, may be based in Asia.

Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis for consumer technology at the NPD Group, said he “wouldn’t say it couldn’t happen, but it would be unusual for Apple to release a ‘tweener’ product” not that long after the iPad’s launch.

If Apple’s plan had been to cover that end of the market, he added, “we probably would have seen the initial iPad being released with a seven-inch screen” instead of the 9.7-inch screen.

Five Inches and Under

However, Rubin did say we might see an iPhone with a slightly larger screen. While the differences are literally measured within a few inches, an iPhone with a screen up to 1.5 inches larger might still be considered a smartphone.

The key distinction, Rubin said, is whether the device would be able to be easily used as a handset against the user’s ear, or to readily fit into an average pocket. He noted that, although one could use a Bluetooth headset to deal with the ear issue, most observers see five inches as the maximum size for a smartphone.

There have been reports and speculation that a new iPhone will be released within the next few months, possibly as early as this summer. Much of the speculation to date, however, has focused on connectivity Relevant Products/Services rather than the screen size and uses.

Verizon Wireless CEO Ivan Seidenberg said Tuesday that he hopes to carry the iPhone at some point, preferably one supporting the network Relevant Products/Services’s next-generation LTE 4G technology. Various news media have reported that a CDMA iPhone is in the works, although it would not work with Verizon’s LTE technology.

IPAD will soon be introduced to the market in April this year (2010), and surely there is a large number of people eagerly waiting for release! Whether it’s the Apple fanatics, or the critics, like me, IPAD certainly something that the eyes of consumers, and drawing down on your calendar. So what does the IPAD is offered to you? Let’s look at this review, IPAD.

The Great Mobile Internet Device
Most critics have agreed, through iPad opinion that the IPAD is likely to be the most successful mobile Internet devices have been produced up to date. It comes equipped with Safari, and fast browser from Apple is very strong. Not only is it the phone fast enough to the Internet (Internet speed depends on connection speed), it is optimized for a number of online services for users.

Whether it is searching for an address or a map on Google Maps, or watching videos from YouTube, the IPAD proves to be an excellent tool to be used in both cases. However, other applications such as online games, chatting and email, blog, and a variety of services can be seen to work only with Apple’s IPAD.

So, if you are a heavy Internet user and the mobile phone proved to be a bit less than what you want, Apple’s IPAD an accurate tool you are looking for. Enjoy the Internet on the go, wherever you are.

Your personal space
Out on the Internet, the IPAD devices store large music, videos, pictures and documents using file manager gives you a big Apple. Get all the media in one place, and let the file manager to organize everything for you in the library. The media player is not much more than music.

ITunes helps you to play music, create playlists, auto playlists are generated for you to rate the music, and even connect to the Apple stores more media and the possibility of the device!

Business
This is a great tool for people looking to stay connected to business and professional life is at all times wherever they are. Create documents, presentations, manage schedules, get calendar information, and customize the device is exactly the way you want to implement. This will let you stay in touch with our clients and continue to work when traveling or away from your office.

This unit comes with a 9.7 inch LED display! Only 0.5 inches thick and weighing only 1.5 pounds! It is really the tool that allows everyone to stay in touch, and more than 14,000 applications on hand. Although some of the things that IPAD opinion says otherwise, is the tool that will soon captivate the world!

It is widely reported that the launch of Apple’s IPAD was disapointing speaking. This is not just the expected first-generation bugs, or the strange name. There is a lack of 16:9 support, Flash support, multitasking, SD Card slot, HDMI, or high-definition video output support, USB port, GPS, and the list goes on. Also exclusive to AT & T’s network, and 3G wireless add $ 130 plus a data limit of 250MB per month. This is a joke I can burn through that much data in one day on the Internet. I would say that some of these missing features will eventually come, but seriously folks, this is a work in progress. I want to buy one now knows that this is the first generation release of the completed and any errors? We need to be convinced that buying the IPAD is a better choice than a notebook.

What Apple should do is not try, it seems, is better than a notebook, because I do not see that at this point it really is. The IPAD is a decorative print news reader, or a replacement paper. This makes it possible ahead of its time. The idea of tablet computers is nothing new, Microsoft has been working on a one-year term. I just think that Apple would be better suited to the market tries to IPAD as that could be used in schools, or it can be used to revolutionize the way read the news every morning.

I’ll stick with my laptop today, what happens to the IPAD before spending a little money for a good enough. What bugs are worked first.

Apple has finally released a new product to the public. Apple wouldn’t even have to show this product and get millions to buy it without a sweat. Fortunately, they did give it a name. It is the iPad. iPad? What in the world is that…? A virtual mattress? No! The iPad is said to be somewhere in between a computer and an iPhone. Apple came out with this product to target businessmen, gamers, Mac lovers, and all sorts of people.

Okay, well please explain it a little better than just “a big iPod”.

That’s what I’m here to do for you! The iPad offers a 9.7 inch backlit LED screen, and is only 1.5 pounds with a thickness of 0.5 inches. The iPad gives you the ability to download anything directly onto it with its Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and 3G AT&T capabilities. All of these capabilities ensure that the iPad user will be capable of the fastest connection and downloading speed out of any of Apple’s products.

Is there an app for that? The answer is yes. Yes to any situation one could think of. With the iPad, the user has 140,000 apps or more at their fingertips. There are apps being created every second of the day. Need an app? I can assure all that there is one.

Speculators were…well for a lack of a better term… speculating that the price of the iPad would be nearly $800 or even $900. Yet, Apple came out with a debut price of only $499! Somehow, Apple really worked on their price, because the user is paying only $499 for an iPod and a computer!

The network offered through the iPad is AT&T. Some may say how poor of a company AT&T is, and this, or that. The truth is, AT&T is doing everything in its power to ensure that the iPad user obtains the best wireless connection. AT&T has invested two billion dollars into creating a better  experience for the iPad user and is planning to invest 900% more within the next few months. AT&T is going to stop at nothing to make the iPad perfect!

Well, what about the features? I think a better way to ask this is what features does it NOT have? The iPad features YouTube, Safari, 140,000 apps, photos, iTunes, iPod, App Store, iBooks, maps, calendar, and contacts to just name a few. Any Apple owner knows that Apple has had all of these things since the iPod touch. Well, not only does it have all these features, but it has the updated versions of all of them.

The iPad has a new accelerometer that has been upgraded from the previous iPhone accelerometer. The iPad’s accelerometer uses both X and Y axes to ensure a real 3D feel to it. This new upgrade is brilliant for the gamers out there.

Apple’s new iPad has so many features going for it. The new technology it offers is truly endless. One could not go wrong purchasing this new iPad. The targeted audience? The human race.